“A man whose name I didn’t know was killed,
An engineer, a siege machine went wrong.”
In 363, in Persia, worth no song,
A stupid accident, unsought, unwilled,
Unusual that this was written down.
But Ammianus, who was there that day,
Thought it worth noting, so today
I know he lived, and died outside that town.
How many people ever lived and died?
A hundred point eight billion, maybe more,
And I can’t mourn them all, although I tried.
That engineer that Ammianus saw
Suddenly stood for everyone. I cried.
Why did this never cross my mind before?
2nd April, 2018, reading Ammianus Marcellinus. Stats on number of people who ever died from Google.
